Lavar is so toxic to this kid. Last time I checked Lonzo was a grown azz man? Why does his father feel the need to hog his son's spotlight?

his son doesnt talk much. he doesnt want the spot light. so there's nothing for lavar to hog.

If it wasnt for lavar, zo would not have been born. when your pops is strategically marrying your athletic tall mother to have you, and has had a plan since before you were born to turn you into a professional player and for you and your family to have its own brand and all of that happens while you get to play for the team of your dreams after playing for UCLA. I think your dad can pop off at the mouth as he pleases.

Here's the thing we know lavar talks reckless about the mouth. But the question is this, is he telling the truth about luke when it comes to the team as a whole? we dont know for sure. before we said heck no, shut up lavar. now we're wondering if he may be onto something. Then ask the 2nd question, we know lavar is all about his kids and he can care less about anything else. BUt with that, lavar isnt about stats. he's about winning.this means even though he's about his kids getting the shine. he only wants his kids to shine via winning which is the teams ultimate goal. When lavar says "you're not using my son right." Shouldnt people pay attention to that? Zo has been injured a lot. is that all on zo's suspect DNA, or being so thin or being so young and underdeveloped physically? perhaps, or could it also be a product of luke's substitution patterns????

Again, we know lavar pops off at the mouth but you should pay closer attention to what he has been saying. are these things true? or at worse do they have any possibility to be true from what we've seen thus far?

When lavar talks about what he sees as the best method to win with his son (run like crazy). is he wrong? If he's right about that, then the next question is, would that be best for our current team or the lakers org to go in that run n gun direction? If the answer to that question is yes. then shouldnt management be riding luke to go back to that original up tempo offense with zo pushing the pace? remember the only reason we slowed down is due to guys literally leaking out too early and leaving rebounds. once we figured that part out we should have gone back to that fast pace. you can rebound and still run. especially when the guy(s) doing the rebounding are zo and bron. would it be smarter to allow bron to rebound less and let zo do it more(since he's younger?) and let bron just run out and get more easy basket?

It's pretty obvious the team misses him. Whether its his D, his uptempo, or passing..he's missed. Have there been any updates on his progress from the sprained ankle that I may have missed. He can't return soon enough.

Unwatchable without him. We’re 3-6 without him and the wins are against the Suns, OT against the Clippers, and a buzzer beater against Celtics. We’re a -111 over those 9 games. That’s a point differential of over -12 points per game in those 9 games including the wins. Add in the collapse against the Rockets after he got hurt and the numbers get worse. Pace has drastically dropped, defense has gone from one of the better ones in the league to one of the worst and the energy is clearly lacking in all aspects(outside of the Celtics game). I think the “well PG defense isn’t valuable anyways” narrative has been put to rest. He’s the second most important player on the team and it’s not particularly close IMO. We may need to rush him back if we wanna keep the playoff hopes alive. If we miss the playoffs he’s likely traded anyways so I don’t see much of a downside to bring him back early.

It's pretty obvious the team misses him. Whether its his D, his uptempo, or passing..he's missed. Have there been any updates on his progress from the sprained ankle that I may have missed. He can't return soon enough.

The kid is obviously a very important cog in the wheel that makes this team go.
Hurry back Zo!!

Won't be surprised if this is true. And Luke is not the coach to get the best out of what we have.

As for the opposition, GSW away, OKC, Mavs away, Rockets away( till ZO got injured) aren't easy and we weren't anywhere close to being this bad defensively despite missing our best player.

It may be true, but raw +/- numbers (which is what those are, in effect) do not account for the quality of the backup. If you replace an average PG with, say, Jordan Clarkson, the average PG's raw defensive +/- numbers are going to look great. Ball is a good defender, for sure, but I am skeptical about stats that suggest that he is some kind of otherworldly defender. He has a DRPM of +0.98, which is very good for a PG. He ranks 7th in the league, and his numbers were rising before he got hurt.

Back up PGs tend to get a lot of minutes against opposition's 2nd unit as well. ZO will have tougher defensive assignment starting against star PGs in this league.

Backup PGs also play with their own second unit. If your second unit sucks defensively, the raw +/- numbers are skewed for that reason. Again, there’s no dispute that Ball is a good defender. I’m just not impressed with stats showing that he is an otherworldly defender who makes a difference of four points per quarter.

Won't be surprised if this is true. And Luke is not the coach to get the best out of what we have.

As for the opposition, GSW away, OKC, Mavs away, Rockets away( till ZO got injured) aren't easy and we weren't anywhere close to being this bad defensively despite missing our best player.

It may be true, but raw +/- numbers (which is what those are, in effect) do not account for the quality of the backup. If you replace an average PG with, say, Jordan Clarkson, the average PG's raw defensive +/- numbers are going to look great. Ball is a good defender, for sure, but I am skeptical about stats that suggest that he is some kind of otherworldly defender. He has a DRPM of +0.98, which is very good for a PG. He ranks 7th in the league, and his numbers were rising before he got hurt.

Back up PGs tend to get a lot of minutes against opposition's 2nd unit as well. ZO will have tougher defensive assignment starting against star PGs in this league.

Backup PGs also play with their own second unit. If your second unit sucks defensively, the raw +/- numbers are skewed for that reason. Again, there’s no dispute that Ball is a good defender. I’m just not impressed with stats showing that he is an otherworldly defender who makes a difference of four points per quarter.

Schedule and psychology. Ball is a part of the reason, too. I’m not disputing that. I’m disputing the magnitude of the effect.

For me it’s a couple of reasons.

- He is a much better fit with the first unit than rondo. Rondo is just an average defender at this point, it’s not enough to compensate for Lebron and Kuzs lack of D. Lonzo is so good at playing lanes it helps compensate for those guys getting lost so often.

- His rebounding allows our bigger guys to do a little bit more in terms of coming out on screens and double teams because they know that they have Lonzo to help on the boards if the shot is off

- psychology. Right now there is nobody on defense going all out. When the other 4 guys see Lonzo switching multiple times and calling things out they become more engaged on that end.

Schedule and psychology. Ball is a part of the reason, too. I’m not disputing that. I’m disputing the magnitude of the effect.

That is my stance as well. I detect a rather strong push to conclude that everything good with the defense is due to Lonzo and everything bad with the defense is due to lack of Lonzo.

In some of the games without Lonzo, the other team has struggled to score. In almost all of them, the opposing point guard has been awful. Yet I don't see stats on my timeline congratulating Rondo or Ingram for those like I would if it had been Lonzo playing in those games. I think the two poles of Lonzo just keep pushing the other side further away.

Crazy. Didn't look that bad to me when he got injured. Did it aggravate a previous injury?

You never know, I remember when Chris Mihm hurt his ankle it didn't look too bad either, that basically ended his career.

Yup. We'll have to wait and see if Zo can get over his injury woes or if they will end his career prematurely._________________"Chick lived and breathed Lakers basketball…but he was also fair and objective and called every game the way it was played."
-from Chick: His Unpublished Memoirs and the Memories of Those Who Knew Him